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Saturday, May 22, 2010

What Are The Rules?

There's been a lot of discussion recently on baseball's "unwritten" rules, thanks to the Dallas Braden-Alex Rodriguez dustup a while back. Stay off my mound and all that.

My question - what are the unwritten rules within a single-team framework?

I watched Scott Olsen look like hell last night and figured it was just one of those nights. It goes back to my theory that every starter, even the Roy Halladays and Ubaldo Jimenezs of the world, are going to have a handful of starts where it just isn't there.

Olsen had been so good for a long stretch. Last night, it just wasn't there. I'm not going to curse on Scott Olsen because he's been a lot better this season than anyone had a right to expect.

Then we learn he left with shoulder tightness, in a shoulder that was surgically repaired no less. Then I do my morning reading and learn from various outlets that Steve McCatty and Ivan Rodriguez could tell in the bullpen Olsen wasn't right.

So why in the name of Dr. Andrews was he on the mound to start the game? At what point does someone say, "Sorry, son. You ain't going tonight." Is it Rodriguez's job to tell Riggleman to go to plan B (Batista, we assume)? Is it McCatty's? Is it Olsen's?

Or do those "unwritten" rules say you just keep your mouth shut? Rub some dirt on it and go out and suck it up?

If so, someone needs to take an eraser and rewrite the unwritten rules.

It isn't so much about one game. Yeah, sure, the team is in a tailspin. That 20-15 thing seems like ages ago. It would indeed be nice to string a few wins together again.

This is more about the player, a still-young pitcher who should have convinced people by now he does have a little upside. He's less than a year removed from shoulder surgery.

5 comments:

"So why in the name of Dr. Andrews was he on the mound to start the game? At what point does someone say, "Sorry, son. You ain't going tonight." Is it Rodriguez's job to tell Riggleman to go to plan B (Batista, we assume)? Is it McCatty's? Is it Olsen's?"

Want to know the unwritten rule on this, ask Jerry Manuel and John Maine. They exercised it on Thursday night. Apparently you're supposed to let the pitcher face one batter while you already have an opposite-handed reliever warming up (in full view of your starter, just to piss him off) and then you pull your starter and bring in your reliever so that your opponent's carefully constructed batting order is now all wrong. Then you hope that that outstanding managerial maneuvering is enough to keep Omar Minaya from firing you before he gets fired himself.

I was at that game, and we had no clue why they pulled Maine. He didn't look hurt. Read about all the intrigue behind it after I got home. Apparently Manuel thought Maine didn't look right warming up, and had him on a short lease without telling him. Maine was apparently quite pissed. Also not happy that they had already booked him with a doctor for the next day.

I'll give Olsen credit for trying to go out there & do what he could. Maybe he could have been a little more up-front with Riggleman / McCatty regarding how he felt physically; In the end, that cost the team.

I have to think that both McCatty & Pudge, based on what they saw, hoped that Olsen would loosen up as the game went forward.

A Better Way To Play

About me

I'm a former newspaper writer and editor who has taken his skills online as a senior editor at AOL FanHouse (www.fanhouse.com). I'm also a reborn baseball fan. I waited 33 years to get another team in D.C. and finally got my wish - should have thought to ask for a better team while I was begging.